1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pocket safety saw.
2. Background
Personnel, including detention officers, prison guards and psychiatric personnel, for example, are sometimes faced with an emergency situation requiring them to quickly stop a suicide hanging attempt. Personnel must quickly cut the cord to save the patient's or detainee's life. Personnel are not allowed to carry sharp objects such as knives, as they may be used against them by a hostile patient or detainee. Therefore, when faced with this sort of emergency situation, personnel must quickly run to a secure location where a saw or knife may be retrieved. This time required to retrieve a cutting implement may be the difference between life and death of the patient or detainee.
In addition, kitchen workers at detention institutions or psychiatric facilities may also want to limit the use of sharp a potentially hazardous knives. The kitchen may require special access in lockdown protocols for tools, including knives.
Safety saws are available in a strand and are commonly used in backpacking and included in survival kits. These safety saws are configured to be wrapped around a tree limb and reciprocated back and forth to cut through the limb. Unfortunately, this type of strand may be used in a hostile environment to choke another patient or a guard.
There exists a need for a saw that can be safely carried in potentially hostile environments, such as a prison or psychiatric ward, and can effectively cut commonly used hanging devices. The saw would need to pose no threat to humans including cutting, stabbing or strangling.